Step Seventy-Two, Wait Once More
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 1536: It's the night before the day before Brittany goes back to McKinley after having had Harry, and she's more nervous now than ever. - Paper Heart series


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 73rd cycle. Now cycle 74!_

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**"Step Seventy-Two, Wait Once More"  
(Kurt &) Brittany, Harry (OC)  
Paper Heart series  
_(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)_  
**

It may have been strange to say that, as she laid in bed that night, she was nervous for the next day, when the next day wasn't actually her first day back at McKinley. The next day was her last day before her first day back at McKinley.

It had been so long since she'd gone to school, as opposed to having Mr. Schuester coming to tutor her at home, that it had started to feel like maybe she'd imagined it all, like that place wasn't real. But she had been a student there, once upon a time, before being a mother, before being pregnant, and now that Harry was here with them and a few months had passed since his birth, there was nothing stopping her from going back… Almost nothing.

She hadn't fallen asleep yet by the time she heard Harry on the baby monitor. They were at her house that night, her and Harry and Kurt, which meant that her son was in another room, in the nursery, where Kurt also had his bed and his belongings for when he was staying with them. The arrangement, with their living part time here and part time at Kurt's house, had been surprisingly easy to keep up with, so much so that they barely had to think about it anymore. The only hang up was that, while either of them was staying at the house that wasn't theirs, they got to sleep in the nursery, with the baby, which then made it so that when they were back at their own homes, they regretted losing the nearness of their son.

"I'll get him," Kurt was still waking up when she came into the nursery.

"It's alright, go back to sleep," she insisted, and he mumbled, which told her that as much as he was resisting, because he wanted to get up and see to Harry, of course, but he also wanted to close his eyes and keep sleeping. By the time she'd slipped out of the nursery with the baby, she was pretty sure he was already so far into his dreams again that he might not have even remembered she was ever there, or that Harry had ever cried.

Brittany brought him back to her room, sitting cross legged on her bed, with her son slowly but surely calming down in her arms. This made her smile, and she softly stroked the fine hairs on his head. He was already bigger than he'd been the first time she'd held him, and it felt like the more time passed, the more his features defined, so that she was able to say this part had been inherited from Kurt, that one from her… He was going to be a boy before they knew it, walking, talking, running, laughing… She could have stayed here with him, that small, forever.

Looking around her room, it did feel like it had grown up as much as Harry had done. This was not the same room it had been a year ago. A year ago, that was when they'd made him, she knew. She'd been a much different girl back then. This wasn't a bad thing. Despite how much she knew the people around her had a fairly low opinion of her, she'd never seen herself the way they saw her. She was happy, and she loved her life.

But they were one year later, and she couldn't look back on it and say she'd choose her old life over her new life; she could never. Her new life had things in it that she'd wanted but never dreamed of having, things she wouldn't have guessed she could want but now could never live without… It had not been her aspiration in life to be a teenage mother, and there would be those out there who would think it was the stupidest idea in the world to put the care of a human being, an infant, in her hands. But could they still say that now, seeing how healthy and happy and loved Harry Roburt Hummel Pierce was? He'd stopped crying now; he was smiling at his mother.

The next day, she'd have to make sure she had everything in order. She'd have to get her school things sorted, books and notebooks and pencils and all those. She was still not a Cheerio again, not that she wanted to be, so she'd have to decide on an outfit. She wanted to make a good impression when she walked through those doors, for them to see that she had been doing just fine. She may not have cared what they said before, but she wanted them to think she had been a good mother. _I have been, right?_

Getting herself ready was part of her job for the next day. She also had to get Harry ready, as he would be put in the care of someone who wasn't her or Kurt or any of their immediate family, where he'd stay until one of them could pick him up. As big steps went, this was a size… seventy-three boot, crashing on to them. She had to trust that he would be alright, so she could concentrate on school and all of that, but it was as she'd been worrying over for weeks already. Leaving him behind terrified her. It had always been her, for the most part, looking after him.

He'd fallen asleep in her arms now. He looked like an angel, if you asked her. Maybe that was why parents said their children were blessings.

She'd taken the angel back to his crib. She was supposed to turn and leave him now, get to bed and do some sleeping of her own. But she crouched, looking through the bars at her little boy. She smiled, humming what she hoped would be a calming song, to keep him from waking again almost as soon as she'd gotten him back here.

She didn't want it to be tomorrow, to be her last day with Harry before she had to be a student again. She wanted to have more time. He was still so small, he would need her, but… No, she had to go. And being at McKinley would be good for her, that's what they said. She'd have classes again, and Glee Club was waiting for her… Harry would be alright; he'd be waiting for her with that smile of his. So she stood, smiling down at him before she left the nursery.

"Good night, angel."

THE END

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******A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
************always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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